aristocreep - Tumblr blog

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oh yeah

yeah

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yolo

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reblog 5ever

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hi yeah no longer updating this

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yeah yeah reblogging

no longer updating this blog, so feel free to unfollow or whatever

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yeah so that’s where I’ll be reblogging SRS art now yeah--so I won't be updating this blog anymore

I'll begin re-following everyone later today, and I'll be reblogging this post periodically too

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so this is what Part I my big story project In Circuli will end up looking like?? it’s pretty text-heavy, but I’m trying to divide the text up into a lot of pages—hopefully over 100!—with quick sketchy art on the side (though the final art will be neater than this preview)

this bit of text is like 0.000000000001% of the entire plot of Part I alone hahaaa

~*COMING SOON TO AN INTERNET NEAR YOU, EARLY SUMMER 2012*~

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Some character design work for school! These dudes are known as Missionaries and are Bioshock-style, genetically-altered warriors based off of the historical Praetorian Guard and Ottoman Janissaries. The design was supposed to be a mix of medieval knight armor and a futuristic bodysuit, but it just turned into a glittery mess of random spats gold (which I am totally ok with)

also on deviantart

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anddd hopefully i can finish this later tonight

i want to die u___u

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In Circuli is such a srs story, you know? so here are some of the main characters from Part I in super kawaii desu sugoi chibi form

from the top: Anu, Des, Ise, Sekh

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coloring this is going to suck

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Portfolio advice

From someone who makes terrible portfolios

(but knows in theory how they work)

Keep them short, 10-15 pieces. The more stuff you have, the more likely your potential employer will get bored and skim over the stuff you really want them to see

If you’re on the fence about anything, take it out. Only the best.

Don’t apologize for anything or talk about how you could have made it better. The most sympathetic response you’ll get is “then why didn’t you?”

If you have a storyboard portfolio it may be a little longer because you don’t want to break up a sequence. Just take the best sequences though, don’t give them a whole film.

Some places want a jack of all trades who can fill in any role. Some places want someone to do a dedicated job and only that job. It helps to know what kind of a place you’re applying to and tailor your portfolio to match. (usually bigger studios care more about dedicated jobs, smaller places want people with more diversity)

Put in stuff that is original and memorable. Even if you aren’t the most technically proficient, your ideas can still stand out.

People remember things that make them laugh.

Put your absolute best stuff at the very beginning and the very end, so they start and finish with the best possible impression.

You’ll have a better success rate if you apply to places that you know are hiring. Most studios operate on a skeleton crew between big projects and aren’t looking for new staff.

Don’t send a new portfolio unless it’s a significantly different. Like at least 75% new material. And hey, if they remember your first application and see what a marked improvement your new one is, they’ll know you’re a quick learner.

E: Oh wait, I forgot the most important one,

Don’t wait until your portfolio is done to start applying. It will never be done. It’s like digging in the sand, you will always be improving and hating your older stuff. Just take what you’re most content with and don’t let the mythical idea of a “perfect portfolio” hold you back.

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ironically typing this up while watching Prince of Egypt, and resisting the urge to tear my hair out in frustration at historical inaccuracies

that aside, this lady here--whom I have badly butchered with my terrible anatomy--is Sekh, god of war (there are no goddesses, since gods are genderless) from my big story project, In Circuli. I spent a lot of time brooding over her design; I wanted to make it blatantly obvious she choose the physical guise of a female but still give her FEMINIST STRENGTH even though she's actually genderless. Visually, spirit-animal-wise, I based her off of a lion/fox mix to (cheesily) represent ~*strength*~ and ~*cunning*~ in war.

Sekh is a Great God, meaning that other warlike deities from other cultures must pay tribute to her. She oversees all wars, both mortal and spirit, regardless of the Empire of the Sun being involved or not.

She (obviously playing an important role in the story, otherwise she'd just be a minor character) is also unique among the great gods because she is the only one who feels emotion, though she hides it. Though she's happy most of the time, Sekh thinks of her role to be a heavy burden, especially when there is a major conflict breaking out--she despises her position as being an administrator of a relation directly related to apocalypse and death. Unlike other war deities, Sekh chooses to have her physical form be female, as mentioned above. Usually, only gods related to creation are portrayed as females, however she often refers to soldiers in war as being her 'sons and daughters' and thus appears as a feminine mother figure.

Her administrative functions over war are also slightly more interesting than the other's--Sekh oversees all battles, and though does not participate, observes and records the proceedings and outcomes (pretty nasty stuff even for a supposedly-emotionless god). In the case of invasion attempts over the mortal Empire of the Sun, Sekh is the only divine being allowed to intervene in World affairs--she defends and even leads troops into battle, usually through temporary ~*mind control*~ of essential individuals.

Also unlike other war deities, Sekh favors cunning and tactical planning in war over strength in numbers and superior weaponry/armor, and resultly, is renowned, respected, and feared across the divine world for not ever losing a single battle. Despite this, she still greatly wishes to be a god of something less 'destructive' like her sister Bast (though the only thing related about them is their appearance).

On a less serious note, she also enjoys drinking and shares a close actual brother-sister relationship with Anu who, despite being stuffy most of the time, does admit to disguising himself as a mortal with Sekh to go out for a night of questionable substances--her drinking 'problem' being an allusion to the Egyptian myth of a (fantastically-failed) apocalypse attempted by Sekhmet.

I shouldn't be allowed to make World Building Wednesday things past 1 AM.

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102 Resources for Fiction Writers

Are you still stuck for ideas for National Novel Writing Month? Or are you working on a novel at a more leisurely pace? Here are 102 resources on Character, Point of View, Dialogue, Plot, Conflict, Structure, Outlining, Setting, and World Building, plus some links to generate Ideas and Inspiration.

CHARACTER, POINT OF VIEW, DIALOGUE

10 Days of Character Building

Name Generators

Name Playground

The Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test

Priming the idea pump (A character checklist shamlessly lifted from acting)

How to Create a Character

Seven Common Character Types

Handling a Cast of Thousands – Part I: Getting to Know Your Characters

It’s Not What They Say …

Establishing the Right Point of View: How to Avoid “Stepping Out of Character”

How to Start Writing in the Third Person

Web Resources for Developing Characters

What are the Sixteen Master Archetypes?

Character: A compilation of guidance from classical and contemporary experts on creating great dramatic characters

Building Fictional Characters

Fiction Writer’s Character Chart

Character Building Workshop

Tips for Characterization

Fiction Writer’s Character Chart

Villains are People, Too, But …

Top 10 Tips for Writing Dialogue

Speaking of Dialogue

Dialogue Tips

Advantages, Disadvantages and Skills (character traits)

How to Write a Character Bible

Character Development Exercises

All Your Characters Sounds the Same — And They’re Not a Hivemind!

Medieval Names Archive

Sympathy Without Saintliness

Writing the Other: Bridging Cultural Difference for Successful Fiction

Family Echo (family tree website)

Interviewing Characters: Follow the Energy

100 Character Development Questions for Writers

Behind the Name

Lineage Chart Layout Generator

PLOT, CONFLICT, STRUCTURE, OUTLINE

How to Write a Novel: The Snowflake Method

Effectively Outlining Your Plot

Conflict and Character within Story Structure

Outlining Your Plot

Ideas, Plots & Using the Premise Sheets

How to Write a Novel

Creating Conflict and Sustaining Suspense

Plunge Right In … Into Your Story, That Is!

Fiction Writing Tips: Story Grid

Tips for Creating a Compelling Plot

Writer’s “Cheat Sheets”

The Thirty-six (plus one) Dramatic Situations

The Evil Overlord Devises a Plot: Excerpt from Stupid Plotting Tricks

Conflict Test

What is Conflict?

Monomyth

The Hero’s Journey: Summary of the Steps

Outline Your Novel in Thirty Minutes

Plotting Without Fears

Novel Outlining 101

Writing the Perfect Scene

Fight Scenes 101

Basic Plots in Literature

One-Page Plotting

The Great Swampy Middle

SETTING, WORLD BUILDING

Magical World Builder’s Guide

I Love the End of the World

World Building 101

The Art of Description: Eight Tips to Help You Bring Your Settings to Life

Creating the Perfect Setting – Part I

Creating a Believable World

An Impatient Writer’s Approach to Worldbuilding

Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions

Setting

Character and Setting Interactions

Creating Fantasy and Science Fiction Worlds

Creating Fantasy Worlds

Questions About Worldbuilding

Maps Workshop — Developing the Fictional World Through Mapping

World Builder Projects

IDEAS, INSPIRATION

Quick Story Idea Generator

Solve Your Problems Simply by Saying Them Out Loud

Busting Your Writing Rut

Writing Inspiration, or Sex on a Bicycle

Creative Acceleration: 11 Tips to Engineer a Productive Flow

The Seven Major Beginner Mistakes

Complete Your First Book with these 9 Simple Writing Habits

Free Association, Active Imagination, Twilight Imaging

Random Book Title Generator

Finishing Your Novel

Story Starters and Idea Generators

REVISION

How to Rewrite

One-Pass Manuscript Revision: From First Draft to Last in One Cycle

Editing Recipe

Cliche Finder

Revising Your Novel: Read What You’ve Written

Writing 101: So You Want to Write a Novel Part 3: Revising a Novel

TOOLS and SOFTWARE

My Writing Nook (online text editor; free)

Bubbl.us (online mind map application; free)

Freemind (mind map application; free; Windows, Mac, Linux, portable)

XMind (mind map application; free; Windows, Mac, Linux, portable)

Liquid Story Binder (novel organization and writing software; free trial, $45.95; Windows, portable)

Scrivener (novel organization and writing software; free trial, $39.95; Mac)

SuperNotecard (novel organization and writing software; free trial, $29; Windows, Mac, Linux, portable)

yWriter (novel organization and writing software; free; Windows, Linux, portable)

JDarkRoom (minimalist text editor; free; Windows, Mac, Linux, portable)

AutoRealm (map creation software; free; Windows, Linux with Wine)

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The Most Astounding Fact by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked by a reader of TIME magazine, “What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?” This is his answer.

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GODS and other deities

It is now Wednesday! (actually Thursday) but still a pretty unreasonable time, nonetheless, here is another World Building Wednesday since I have no new art to share--this time, I will write about the mythical immortals of my big story project (no pictures this time, sadly)

also I am thinking of naming it In Circuli or In, Circuli--yes, with an additional hipster comma that changes the meaning--or any other variation of 'Circle' in Latin

In the World, which is what the universe is called, there is an innumerable pantheon of various beings that uphold some degree of unnatural power and control of certain 'elements' unobtainable by mortals. They range greatly in strength (physical, mental, spiritual) from beings who control all of life (Re, Ise) or death (Anu) or knowledge (Toth) to countless lessers that act only as messengers and assistants. Also included are spirits and angels/demons, but that is for another day.

They are called Gods by the mortals, however the gods themselves openly admit they barely resemble their envisioned counterparts. Though they control all aspects of mortal life, they do little to interfere with it--kind of like the gods created a huge game of Sims and left it to autopilot, with a few left behind to make sure the program doesn't crash or the computer doesn't burn out--most of the higher-ranking gods even lack the ability to understand mortal emotion. They also claim to be perfect, and are, however all are greatly flawed in at least one main, crippling aspect that often ends up being more destructive than human flaws.

All gods have a basis of moral standards--all of their actions are intentionally (actually involuntarily) done for the good of all; though some do go 'rogue', their actions would never purposefully permanently damage mortalkind (not just humans! also a length text post for another day). Every single god is also extremely intelligent, possessing very advanced knowledge in every area of study (thus no gods are truly intelligent in comparison to one another) Along with being a god, there is the additional bonus of pre-given teleportation, shapeshifting, and elemental manipulation abilities.

Gods rank in accordance to administrative function. Though there are usually multiple deities for one element or idea, the ones of Sun empire tend to be the 'heads' simply because they had existed long before their counterparts. Ones associated with life and knowledge rank the highest, closely followed by gods pertaining to civilization, then the arts (both practical and aesthetic), with finally elemental and 'earthly' gods ranking at the very bottom. Certain beings such as Anu, Des, and the Scapegoat sort of party along at their own level, which ranks both above creation deities and below elementals. There is no mortal number large enough to measure the exact number of gods.

Most live in a spirit world which exists simultaneously with the World, however Time does not exist (or at least is perceived differently) in their realm, thus gods do not have a numerable age. It mirrors the World in culture, geography, and even demography and number of camels--but there is no poverty, disease, etc. and things like architecture is much more grand and glorified. Major events that take place in the spirit realm affect the mortal World, however strangely enough, the same happens vice-versa. Gods often visit their real-world counterparts, but almost always for leisure reasons.

As for their origins, and how one becomes a god, most of these deities mysteriously appear out of ~*nowhere*~ (a common phenomena, however). It is believed that the majority are self-created, since there is no sexual reproduction among them. It is a bit of a Jim Crowe law for gods to talk about creation, in fact, so no one really knows how existence came into being. There are many notable exceptions to non-self-created gods--the Scapegoat (exception characters are main characters, totally not-already-obvious spoiler!!) was created by humans, and Anu was once believed to be an early mortal.

This information is actually the state of the gods before the start of the story--afterwards, shit gets fucked up and everything changes, but I guess this is some kind of background info. There's a lot of stuff I'm forgetting :'I

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1 AM update! Not a Wednesday or a reasonable time, but the only time I have time, so here is another World Building Wednesday Monday thing.

The Alchemist (who may or may not be named, depending on how awkward future dialogue is) is what his title suggests--an alchemist. He appears in a much later arc in the big story project, but one of the few confirmed later characters in an otherwise-uncertain junkyard of half-thought-out ideas. Since the big story project doesn't follow a linear time period, his story doesn't actually directly relate with Anu's--but it also kinda does, in a way; I don't really know--but for the most part he's an individual.

Originally hailing from a coastal Mediterranean-esque city, the Alchemist is forced to leave his home after plague strikes--leaving for the exotic and mysterious east. Being the unreliable twat that he is, and with a secret spell for an ~*immortality hex*~ the Alchemist spends the next few centuries lollygagging in a wealthy city, later becoming a prominent black market potion producer like in Breaking Bad.

Some time later, an old-as-balls immortal god (one of the very few to survive a series of mysterious COLLAPSES, which I must write about later) slaps him in the face and tells him to get his shit together for indeterminate reasons, but eventually he ends up turning into Indiana Jones and the two fuck old shit up. Also they head back to the north, which is infected by zombies allegorical personifications of the horrors of illiteracy.

Personality-wise, I make fun of him a lot (by myself, usually at 3 AM on weekends) because he is my 'hipster' character, who dresses in unreasonable clothing, wears a belt of daggers despite not knowing how to correctly operate a cutting knife, and claims to be an illusive desert prince even though he is obviously of northern descent. The Alchemist is cocky and arrogant, blind to his own faults and suffers from crippling superiority complex because of his ~*extensive knowledge on lettuce*~ and infamous immortality.

But he is still pretty cool! The Alchemist is also one of the last practitioners of ~*magic*~ (which is considered a taboo art during his time era, but a highly sought-after skill regardless) and his alchemy work does have vital medical uses. He's also pretty dumb in everything aside from making potions and buying expensive clothing, and owes everyone money that he'll never pay off. But mostly importantly he learns the importance of being earnest, and saves the world or something Secret of Kells-style.

um dumb and badly-written descriptions on my part, but hopefully these will get better as I write more! semi-decent ideas only to be ruined by incoherent rambling